BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 PRODID:talks.ox.ac.uk BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:TBC DTSTART;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20231121T130000Z DTEND;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20231121T140000Z UID:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/1e9d2d3e-09ca-4966-b3e2-44fb4d00a806/ DESCRIPTION:TBC LOCATION:New Radcliffe House (Seminar Room\, New Radcliffe House (2nd Floo r)\, Department of Experimental Psychology\, Woodstock Road\, Oxford OX2 6 GG)\, Walton Street OX2 6NW TZID:Europe/London URL:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/1e9d2d3e-09ca-4966-b3e2-44fb4d00a806/ BEGIN:VALARM ACTION:display DESCRIPTION:Talk:TBC TRIGGER:-PT1H END:VALARM END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Title TBC DTSTART;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20231031T130000Z DTEND;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20231031T140000Z UID:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/95ef71bd-17c7-43d8-8be8-2573056dcc3b/ DESCRIPTION:TBC\nSpeakers:\nProfessor Ingo Willuhn (Netherlands Institute for Neuroscience) LOCATION:Venue to be announced TZID:Europe/London URL:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/95ef71bd-17c7-43d8-8be8-2573056dcc3b/ BEGIN:VALARM ACTION:display DESCRIPTION:Talk:Title TBC TRIGGER:-PT1H END:VALARM END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:BEACON Seminar: Optically tuned ultrasound neuromodulation for rem ote control of walking\, anxiety\, and vasodynamics DTSTART;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20230920T110000 DTEND;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20230920T120000 UID:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/23ac0fe5-4d50-4f7d-b423-68e4909ab3bd/ DESCRIPTION:Focused ultrasound can non-invasively modulate neural activity \, but has not yet been optimized for achieving powerful control of natura l behaviors and physiological processes. We used fiber photometry coupled focused ultrasound in freely behaving animals to optimize waveform archite cture across five different neural populations. For all cell types\, we fo und that low frequency\, compressed\, high intensity pulsing maximized neu ral response\; inversion of these features caused cell type selective\, su stained neural inhibition with particular potency in the beta-gamma range. Examining cortical representation of deep brain stimulation showed that t argeting thalamic circuitry resulted in sustained increases somatosensory and visual activity indicating increased engagement. To examine whether th e waveform tuning enhanced behavioral outcomes we examined freely moving b ehavior and found that GABAergic dorsomedial hypothalamus excitation could elicit stimulus locked walking and anxiety behavior capable of overriding natural motivated behavior\, whereas non-optimized protocols of equivalen t energy or alternate-target exposure resulted in substantially less or no change in behavior. Bidirectional manipulation of the centromedian nucleu s activity could increase or decrease head movement through similar total energy delivery indicative of changes in alertness. In examining whether t hermal effects could explain neurobehavioral differences\, we found that a ctivating protocols induce local cooling in the brain through cyclooxygena se dependent vasoconstriction. Together\, these findings demonstrate that\ , with proper tuning\, pure focused ultrasound can exhibit powerful effect s on complex behavior and physiological state. LOCATION:Tinsley Building (Seminar Room\, Tinsley Building\, Mansfield Roa d\, Oxford OX1 3TA)\, Mansfield Road OX1 3TA TZID:Europe/London URL:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/23ac0fe5-4d50-4f7d-b423-68e4909ab3bd/ BEGIN:VALARM ACTION:display DESCRIPTION:Talk:BEACON Seminar: Optically tuned ultrasound neuromodulatio n for remote control of walking\, anxiety\, and vasodynamics TRIGGER:-PT1H END:VALARM END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:BEACON Seminar: Some neuro-computational models of social decision -making and learning - Christoph Korn (Heidelberg University) DTSTART;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20230822T130000 DTEND;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20230822T140000 UID:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/07a582e3-53dc-4be4-9716-864653d44e99/ DESCRIPTION:ABSTRACT\n\nIn social interactions\, humans often resort to he uristic decision-making and learning strategies. These strategies can be d escribed with reinforcement learning models and can be linked to parts of the medial prefrontal cortex (MPFC).\n\nFirst\, I will present a series of studies that specify how humans combine optimal and heuristic solutions t o maximize rewards for themselves and for others in multistep decision sce narios. Model-based analyses of fMRI data suggest a role of the MPFC in th e computation of the employed policies and of the uncertainty associated w ith relying on these policies.\n\nSecond\, I will describe experiments sho wing how humans learn about other people’s character traits. The best-fi tting models combine principles derived from reinforcement learning algori thms with participants’ world knowledge about the distributions and inte rrelations of different character traits. I will present an fMRI study tes ting if these interrelations between character traits are represented as “grid-like code” in the MPFC.\nTaken together\, the to-be-presented pr ojects aim at providing neuro-computational accounts of the trade-offs in complex social decision-making and learning processes. I will briefly outl ine ongoing and future research projects that build on these insights to e lucidate how social decision-making and learning can go awry in psychiatri c populations.\n\nSpeakers:\nChristoph Korn (Heidelberg University) LOCATION:New Radcliffe House (Seminar Room\, New Radcliffe House (2nd Floo r)\, Department of Experimental Psychology\, Woodstock Road\, Oxford OX2 6 GG)\, Walton Street OX2 6NW TZID:Europe/London URL:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/07a582e3-53dc-4be4-9716-864653d44e99/ BEGIN:VALARM ACTION:display DESCRIPTION:Talk:BEACON Seminar: Some neuro-computational models of social decision-making and learning - Christoph Korn (Heidelberg University) TRIGGER:-PT1H END:VALARM END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Exploring Relevant Scales for Human Brains in Society - Dr Rei Aka ishi (RIKEN Centre for Brain Science) DTSTART;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20230711T130000 DTEND;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20230711T140000 UID:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/82442f93-72a1-469f-a662-70dff2df582c/ DESCRIPTION:Humans inherently interact with and shape their environment\, thereby influencing their cognition and brain function. The complexity of these interactions\, particularly the temporal\, spatial\, and social dime nsions\, is crucial for understanding our brains\, yet its full breadth re mains elusive. This presentation delves into the expansion of computationa l scales within the human brain\, examining the role of historical depende ncies in decision-making and identifying socially relevant scales for the brain. Special focus will be placed on the study of trust and well-being i n relation to relational mobility\, and their manifestation in functional MRI studies using network-based Prisoner's Dilemma tasks. Experimental res ults suggest increased cooperative behavior in larger\, flexible social st ructures. Computational models reveal an adoption of more tolerant strateg ies with increasing group sizes\, underpinned by brain regions associated with memory\, social\, and decision-making functions.\n\n\nSpeakers:\nDr R ei Akaishi (RIKEN Centre for Brain Science) LOCATION:New Radcliffe House (Seminar Room\, New Radcliffe House (2nd Floo r)\, Department of Experimental Psychology\, Woodstock Road\, Oxford OX2 6 GG)\, Walton Street OX2 6NW TZID:Europe/London URL:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/82442f93-72a1-469f-a662-70dff2df582c/ BEGIN:VALARM ACTION:display DESCRIPTION:Talk:Exploring Relevant Scales for Human Brains in Society - D r Rei Akaishi (RIKEN Centre for Brain Science) TRIGGER:-PT1H END:VALARM END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:BEACON Seminar: Tethered Rationality: A Model of Behavior for the Real World - Professor Vinod Goel (York University\, Toronto) DTSTART;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20230613T130000 DTEND;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20230613T140000 UID:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/9e9bf5e1-b704-443d-8d6f-0fd5b78b7f4b/ DESCRIPTION:In a December 2021 interview\, Francis Collins\, the departing director of the NIH noted "to have now 60 million people still holding of f of taking advantage of lifesaving vaccines is pretty unexpected. It does make me\, at least\, realize\, ‘Boy\, there are things about human beha vior that I don't think we had invested enough into understanding.’ “ \nDecision-making models--intended to explain and predict volitional beha vior-- are extreme abstractions from the biology of Homo sapiens. They inv ariably pick out only cognitive/rational mechanisms. To the extent that an abstraction captures salient features it is valuable. To the extent that it fails to do so\, it can be misleading. It is proposed that by picking o ut only cognitive/rational mechanisms models of decision-making are far to o abstract and removed from the biology to accurately capture behavior. A case is made for tethering cognitive/rational decision-making models to “lower level” noncognitive systems. Volitional behavior is then a blen ded response of these various systems. \n\nTo make this case I appeal to (i) data from cooperative economic decision-making tasks to support the bl ended response hypothesis\; (ii) evolutionary and anatomical evidence for the tethered brain\; and (iii) the neuroscience literature on affect and a rousal to propose a lingua franca of communication and a control structure for the tethered mind. I conclude by explaining some real world behaviors with tethered rationality. \n\n\nSpeakers:\nProfessor Vinod Goel (York Un iversity\, Toronto) LOCATION:New Radcliffe House (Seminar Room\, New Radcliffe House (2nd Floo r)\, Department of Experimental Psychology\, Woodstock Road\, Oxford OX2 6 GG)\, Walton Street OX2 6NW TZID:Europe/London URL:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/9e9bf5e1-b704-443d-8d6f-0fd5b78b7f4b/ BEGIN:VALARM ACTION:display DESCRIPTION:Talk:BEACON Seminar: Tethered Rationality: A Model of Behavior for the Real World - Professor Vinod Goel (York University\, Toronto) TRIGGER:-PT1H END:VALARM END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:BEACON Seminar: Gene-environment interactions modulating brain fun ction within and between generations - Professor Anthony Hannan (The Unive rsity of Melbourne) DTSTART;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20230421T130000 DTEND;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20230421T140000 UID:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/c8e4b6b2-f9b9-4303-af65-f6119f064b62/ DESCRIPTION:\nSpeakers:\nProfessor Anthony Hannan (The University of Melbo urne) LOCATION:Sherrington Library (The Sherrington Library\, the Sherrington Bu ilding\, Department of Physiology\, Anatomy\, and Genetics)\, off Parks Ro ad OX1 3PT TZID:Europe/London URL:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/c8e4b6b2-f9b9-4303-af65-f6119f064b62/ BEGIN:VALARM ACTION:display DESCRIPTION:Talk:BEACON Seminar: Gene-environment interactions modulating brain function within and between generations - Professor Anthony Hannan ( The University of Melbourne) TRIGGER:-PT1H END:VALARM END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:BEACON Seminar: Neural Replay Mechanisms Associated With Planning And Memory In Humans - Dr Elliott Wimmer (The Max Planck UCL Centre for Co mputational Psychiatry and Ageing Research) DTSTART;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20230606T130000 DTEND;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20230606T140000 UID:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/90438fc4-e11c-4701-aeaa-b340e82532ee/ DESCRIPTION:Theories of neural replay propose that it supports a range of functions\, most prominently planning and memory consolidation. Here\, we test whether distinct signatures of replay in the same task are related to planning and memory preservation. We adapted a reward learning task where in participants utilized structure knowledge for model-based evaluation\, while at the same time had to maintain knowledge of two independent and ra ndomly alternating task environments. We found that before choice\, prospe ctive replay strength was enhanced for the current task-relevant environme nt when a model-based planning strategy was beneficial. Following reward r eceipt\, and consistent with a memory preservation role\, replay for the a lternative distal task environment was enhanced as a function of decreasin g recency of experience with that environment. Our results provide support for key theoretical proposals regarding the functional role of replay and demonstrate that the relative strength of planning and memory-related sig nals are modulated by ongoing computational and task demands.\n\n \nSpeake rs:\nDr Elliott Wimmer (The Max Planck UCL Centre for Computational Psychi atry and Ageing Research) LOCATION:New Radcliffe House (Seminar Room\, New Radcliffe House (2nd Floo r)\, Department of Experimental Psychology\, Woodstock Road\, Oxford OX2 6 GG)\, Walton Street OX2 6NW TZID:Europe/London URL:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/90438fc4-e11c-4701-aeaa-b340e82532ee/ BEGIN:VALARM ACTION:display DESCRIPTION:Talk:BEACON Seminar: Neural Replay Mechanisms Associated With Planning And Memory In Humans - Dr Elliott Wimmer (The Max Planck UCL Cent re for Computational Psychiatry and Ageing Research) TRIGGER:-PT1H END:VALARM END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:BEACON Seminar: Space as a scaffold for temporal generalisation - Dr Jacques Pesnot Lerousseau (University of Oxford) DTSTART;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20230516T130000 DTEND;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20230516T140000 UID:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/19312ec0-a21d-45e4-8361-b680558cd3c1/ DESCRIPTION:Object recognition relies on invariant representations. A long standing view states that invariances are learned by explicitly coding how visual features are related in space. Here\, we asked how invariances are learned for objects that are defined by relations among features in time (temporal objects). We trained people to classify auditory\, visual and sp atial temporal objects composed of four successive features into categorie s defined by sequential transitions across a two-dimensional feature manif old\, and measured their tendency to transfer this knowledge to categorise novel objects with rotated transition vectors. Rotation-invariant tempora l objects could only be learned if their features were explicitly spatial or had been associated with a physical spatial location in a prior task. T hus\, space acts as a scaffold for generalising information in time. \nSpe akers:\nDr Jacques Pesnot Lerousseau (University of Oxford) LOCATION:New Radcliffe House (Seminar Room\, New Radcliffe House (2nd Floo r)\, Department of Experimental Psychology\, Woodstock Road\, Oxford OX2 6 GG)\, Walton Street OX2 6NW TZID:Europe/London URL:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/19312ec0-a21d-45e4-8361-b680558cd3c1/ BEGIN:VALARM ACTION:display DESCRIPTION:Talk:BEACON Seminar: Space as a scaffold for temporal generali sation - Dr Jacques Pesnot Lerousseau (University of Oxford) TRIGGER:-PT1H END:VALARM END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:BEACON Seminar: Following the Cues - How do Sound and Light Cues i mpact risky Decision Making? - Professor Catharine Winstanley (The Univers ity of British Columbia) DTSTART;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20230502T120000 DTEND;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20230502T130000 UID:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/ce98120f-8668-43f6-8161-e1ff983d79b3/ DESCRIPTION:Computer games and electronic gambling products frequently sig nal reward delivery with accompanying sound and light cues. While this sen sory stimulation may seem superficially harmless\, decades of research int o the neurobiological processes underlying chemical dependency suggests th at cue-reactivity enhances vulnerability to drug addiction. Furthermore\, repeated exposure to conditioned stimuli which predict reward delivery wit h maximal uncertainty\, or responding on variable as opposed to fixed rati o schedules of reinforcement\, can by themselves sensitise rats to the loc omotor and reinforcing properties of psychostimulant drugs. We have shown that adding reward-concurrent cues to laboratory-based gambling paradigms increases risky decision making in both rats and humans\, and alters the r ecruitment of the dopamine system in the decision making process. Rats tha t perform the cued rat gambling task daily also self-administer more cocai ne\, and subsequently make even more risky choices on the task. Psychophar macology studies in rats indicate that serotonergic\, noradrenergic\, and cholinergic modulation of choice preference changes when such cues are pre sent. Behavioural experiments reveal that cues have to be reliably\, but n ot exclusively win-paired in order to exacerbate risky decision-making in rodent models. Contrary to our initial expectations\, computational modeli ng analyses of data from over 200 rats show that these cues do not drive r isky decision making by enhancing learning from rewards\, but rather preve nting sufficient learning from punishments. When given the choice\, most r ats prefer to play the cued version of the task\, even though fewer reward s are earned\, and the more they select cued trials\, the riskier their de cision making becomes. The potential consequences for gambling disorder an d addiction vulnerability will be discussed.\nSpeakers:\nProfessor Cathari ne Winstanley (The University of British Columbia) LOCATION:Pharmacology Lecture Theatre\, Department of Pharmacology. For th ose without keycard access to Pharmacology\, use the call button at recept ion. TZID:Europe/London URL:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/ce98120f-8668-43f6-8161-e1ff983d79b3/ BEGIN:VALARM ACTION:display DESCRIPTION:Talk:BEACON Seminar: Following the Cues - How do Sound and Lig ht Cues impact risky Decision Making? - Professor Catharine Winstanley (Th e University of British Columbia) TRIGGER:-PT1H END:VALARM END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:BEACON Seminar: Exploring the Neural and Behavioural Signatures of Protein Appetite - Professor James E McCutcheon (UiT The Arctic Universit y of Norway\, Tromsø) DTSTART;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20230418T130000 DTEND;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20230418T140000 UID:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/ff44e946-7f39-4f49-992a-499d46fa4cc0/ DESCRIPTION:Acquiring the necessary balance of nutrients in one’s diet i s a compelling problem faced by many animals including humans. For the mac ronutrient protein\, this process is particularly pertinent as essential a mino acids cannot be stored so must be constantly sourced through dietary choices. Thus\, behavioural and physiological mechanisms likely exist to h elp compensate for any deficiency. Accordingly\, we and others have shown that animals fed a low-protein diet develop a strong preference for protei n over carbohydrate. This preference develops rapidly and is also associat ed with increased motivation for protein in an operant-responding paradigm . To explore the neural basis of this shift in behaviour we have been usin g a combination of calcium imaging\, voltammetry\, and activity-dependent “trapping” of neural populations in rodents. Using fibre photometry an d voltammetry\, we have shown that mesolimbic circuitry is modulated by th e state of protein restriction with activity in ventral tegmental area and forebrain dopamine release elevated when animals are in need. In addition \, with single cell multiphoton microscopy we have shown that an important projection to the VTA - vGAT neurons in lateral hypothalamus – are simi larly modulated by the state of protein restriction. Furthermore\, we are using transgenic FosTRAP mice to identify how the state of protein restric tion alters whole-brain patterns of neural activity evoked by consumption of protein and infusion of protein directly into the stomach.\nSpeakers:\n Professor James E McCutcheon (UiT The Arctic University of Norway\, Troms ø) LOCATION:Sherrington Library (The Sherrington Library\, the Sherrington Bu ilding\, Department of Physiology\, Anatomy\, and Genetics)\, off Parks R oad OX1 3PT TZID:Europe/London URL:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/ff44e946-7f39-4f49-992a-499d46fa4cc0/ BEGIN:VALARM ACTION:display DESCRIPTION:Talk:BEACON Seminar: Exploring the Neural and Behavioural Sign atures of Protein Appetite - Professor James E McCutcheon (UiT The Arctic University of Norway\, Tromsø) TRIGGER:-PT1H END:VALARM END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:BEACON Seminar: Gender bias in academia: a lifetime problem that n eeds solutions - Dr Anaïs Lllorens (University of California\, Berkeley) DTSTART;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20230314T130000Z DTEND;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20230314T140000Z UID:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/5eaa930f-79b0-443b-b76a-9638837025c1/ DESCRIPTION:Despite increased awareness of the lack of gender equity in ac ademia and a growing number of initiatives to address issues of diversity\ , change is slow and inequalities remain. Gender bias in academia is not a single problem but manifests as a collection of distinct issues that nega tively affect every aspect of women researchers' lives: careers\, work-lif e balance\, and mental health. Together with 43 authors across 10 countrie s\, we disentangled these facets and propose concrete suggestions that can be adopted by individuals\, academic institutions\, and society to mitiga te the pervasive effect of gender bias. \n\n \nSpeakers:\nDr Anaïs Lllore ns (University of California\, Berkeley) LOCATION:New Radcliffe House (Seminar Room\, New Radcliffe House (2nd Floo r)\, Department of Experimental Psychology\, Woodstock Road\, Oxford OX2 6 GG)\, Walton Street OX2 6NW TZID:Europe/London URL:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/5eaa930f-79b0-443b-b76a-9638837025c1/ BEGIN:VALARM ACTION:display DESCRIPTION:Talk:BEACON Seminar: Gender bias in academia: a lifetime probl em that needs solutions - Dr Anaïs Lllorens (University of California\, B erkeley) TRIGGER:-PT1H END:VALARM END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:BEACON Seminar: Shining a light on dopamine signalling during infe rence guided choice - Dr Marta Blanco-Pozo (Department of Experimental Psy chology\, University of Oxford) DTSTART;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20230307T130000Z DTEND;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20230307T140000Z UID:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/7c4ae02b-9cc6-4ec7-abc9-9bd4d4f3a944/ DESCRIPTION:During flexible behaviour\, dopamine is thought to carry rewar d prediction errors (RPEs)\, which update values and hence modify future b ehaviour. However\, in real-world situations where the statistical relatio nships in the environment can be learned\, continuously adapting values is not always the most efficient way of adapting to change. In such partial observable structured environments\, as is found in many real-world situa tions\, it is not well understood what kind of information dopamine convey s or its causal role in shaping adaptive behaviour. Here\, I'll describe a set of studies where we measured and manipulated dopamine while mice per formed a sequential decision task. I'll show that\, while dopamine tracks a wide range of information\, shaped by the inferred state of the task\, it does not carry the key information that animals are using to rapidly up date their choices.\nSpeakers:\nDr Marta Blanco-Pozo (Department of Experi mental Psychology\, University of Oxford) LOCATION:New Radcliffe House (Seminar Room\, New Radcliffe House (2nd Floo r)\, Department of Experimental Psychology\, Woodstock Road\, Oxford OX2 6 GG)\, Walton Street OX2 6NW TZID:Europe/London URL:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/7c4ae02b-9cc6-4ec7-abc9-9bd4d4f3a944/ BEGIN:VALARM ACTION:display DESCRIPTION:Talk:BEACON Seminar: Shining a light on dopamine signalling du ring inference guided choice - Dr Marta Blanco-Pozo (Department of Experim ental Psychology\, University of Oxford) TRIGGER:-PT1H END:VALARM END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Protection and Removal of Information in Working Memory - Jarrod L ewis-Peacock (University of Texas\, Austin) DTSTART;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20230209T130000Z DTEND;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20230209T140000Z UID:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/1edf18cf-d4e5-487a-9849-8f55826f1062/ DESCRIPTION:Protecting information in working memory from distraction is e ssential to goal-directed behaviour. Discarding information from working m emory may be just as important\, as outdated information consumes precious storage capacity and can interfere with current goals. In this talk\, I w ill discuss both of these abilities.\n\nFirst\, I will review recent advan ces in cognitive psychology and neuroscience that have produced new insigh ts into the nature of working memory and its ability to resist distraction . This includes our recent findings which demonstrate that the benefits as sociated with prioritisation in working memory include a “bend but don ’t break” policy for enduring distraction. Second\, I will describe ou r recent neuroimaging work focused on intentionally removing information f rom working memory. We’ve identified distinct strategies for removal tha t have unique but stable patterns of brain activity with surprising conseq uences on the encoding of new information.\nSpeakers:\nJarrod Lewis-Peacoc k (University of Texas\, Austin) LOCATION:New Radcliffe House (2nd Floor Seminar Room)\, Walton Street OX2 6NW TZID:Europe/London URL:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/1edf18cf-d4e5-487a-9849-8f55826f1062/ BEGIN:VALARM ACTION:display DESCRIPTION:Talk:Protection and Removal of Information in Working Memory - Jarrod Lewis-Peacock (University of Texas\, Austin) TRIGGER:-PT1H END:VALARM END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Programmable Attractors in the Mouse Frontal Cortex: a Natural Alg orithm for Encoding New Sequences - Mohamady El-Gaby (University of Oxford ) DTSTART;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20230131T130000Z DTEND;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20230131T140000Z UID:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/0d209c1a-393e-4e22-b8f6-ccf9d5270f58/ DESCRIPTION:A plethora of studies in humans\, non-human primates and roden ts implicate the medial frontal cortex (mFC) in executing sequences of act ions\, encoding transitions between goals and representing abstract task s tates. Our empirical findings directly reveal a single algorithm\, down to the cellular level\, that unifies these disparate mFC functions. We desig ned a new behavioural paradigm for mice\, the ABCD task\, which allows sim ultaneously investigating action sequences (one-step transitions in a spat ial maze)\, goal sequences (transitions between rewarded locations) and ab stract task structure (...ABCDABCD…).\n\nNeuronal firing in mFC was prim arily determined by the phase of the animal’s progress between any two g oals. Intriguingly\, we discovered a new class of neurons that build upon this basic phase scaffold to represent the animal’s latent position in t ask space. Individual mFC neurons tracked position in task space relative to a specific spatial goal or subgoal. At the population level\, these neu rons were organised into modules of programmable CANs: new tasks were mapp ed by activating a subset of pre-formed CANs in a task-specific order. Suc h CANs were internally organised\, maintaining their sequential relationsh ips during sleep\, in analogy to ring and toroidal attractors in the head direction and grid cell system respectively. Moreover\, the activity bumps along these CANs predicted the animals’ subsequent behavioural choices in a manner that revealed the underlying algorithm. The movement of an act ivity bump along some CANs tracked task progress relative to a given goal location\, allowing zero-shot inference on new tasks without needing new p lasticity. Other CANs tracked progress relative to an intermediate action. These collectively allowed mice to rapidly converge on long action sequen ces without the need for continual planning. Programmable frontal CANs the refore provide a biological algorithm for optimally encoding new sequences .\nSpeakers:\nMohamady El-Gaby (University of Oxford) LOCATION:New Radcliffe House (2nd Floor Seminar Room)\, Walton Street OX2 6NW TZID:Europe/London URL:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/0d209c1a-393e-4e22-b8f6-ccf9d5270f58/ BEGIN:VALARM ACTION:display DESCRIPTION:Talk:Programmable Attractors in the Mouse Frontal Cortex: a Na tural Algorithm for Encoding New Sequences - Mohamady El-Gaby (University of Oxford) TRIGGER:-PT1H END:VALARM END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Manipulation of striatal temperature produces bidirectional and do se dependent temporal scaling of population activity and decision-making\, but not moment by moment movement execution. - Professor Joe Paton (Cham palimaud Foundation) DTSTART;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20221206T130000Z DTEND;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20221206T140000Z UID:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/607c66f5-5d0c-42a6-ba52-7e8391f1ae49/ DESCRIPTION:The basal ganglia (BG) are thought to contribute to decision-m aking and motor control by influencing action selection based on consequen ces. These functions are critically dependent on timing information that c an be extracted from the evolving state of neural populations in the stria tum\, the major input area of the BG. However\, it is debated whether stri atal activity underlies latent\, dynamic decision processes or kinematics of overt movement. Here\, we measured the impact of temperature on striata l population activity and the behavior of rats and compared the observed e ffects to neural activity and behavior collected in multiple versions of a temporal categorization task. Cooler temperatures caused dilation\, and w armer temperatures contraction\, of both neural activity and patterns of j udgment in time\, mimicking endogenous decision-related variability in str iatal activity. However\, temperature did not similarly affect movement ki nematics. These data provide compelling evidence that the time course of e volving striatal population activity dictates the speed of a latent proces s that is used to guide choices\, but not moment by moment movement execut ion. More broadly\, they establish temporal scaling of population activity as a likely cause and not simply a correlate of timing behavior in the br ain. We speculate that these results may reflect an algorithmic division o f labor between brain systems. Computations similar to those found in valu e-based reinforcement learning (RL) models may be implemented within BG ci rcuits to learn control policies involving relatively compact and discrete action spaces (eg. action selection and decision-making)\, whereas direct policy learning algorithms may be implemented in other brain systems\, su ch as the cerebellum\, to learn control policies involving high dimensiona l and continuous action spaces (eg. continuous control and coordination).\ nSpeakers:\nProfessor Joe Paton (Champalimaud Foundation) LOCATION:Sherrington Library\, off Parks Road OX1 3PT TZID:Europe/London URL:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/607c66f5-5d0c-42a6-ba52-7e8391f1ae49/ BEGIN:VALARM ACTION:display DESCRIPTION:Talk:Manipulation of striatal temperature produces bidirection al and dose dependent temporal scaling of population activity and decision -making\, but not moment by moment movement execution. - Professor Joe Pa ton (Champalimaud Foundation) TRIGGER:-PT1H END:VALARM END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Enhancing the symbiosis between substantive and quantitative resea rch: from antagonism to mutualism - Ethan McCormick (Leiden University) DTSTART;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20221108T130000Z DTEND;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20221108T140000Z UID:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/65c4c970-c623-4a76-83b1-117fa9e81451/ DESCRIPTION:There is often an uneasy relationship between substantive rese archers and quantitative methodologists in the behavioural sciences. This friction arises both from legitimate critiques of prevailing practices and the impenetrable veil that methodological work often wraps itself in – holding itself ostensibly separate and above the messy fray of working wit h real data. In this talk\, I argue that this status quo limits advancemen t in the behavioural sciences and we can instead create cycles of mutual s upport and benefit to improve our ability to ask more specific and interes ting research questions.\nSpeakers:\nEthan McCormick (Leiden University) LOCATION:New Radcliffe House (2nd Floor Seminar Room)\, Walton Street OX2 6NW TZID:Europe/London URL:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/65c4c970-c623-4a76-83b1-117fa9e81451/ BEGIN:VALARM ACTION:display DESCRIPTION:Talk:Enhancing the symbiosis between substantive and quantitat ive research: from antagonism to mutualism - Ethan McCormick (Leiden Unive rsity) TRIGGER:-PT1H END:VALARM END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Updating goal-directed actions: A role for orbitofrontal cortex an d ventral hippocampus - Shauna Parkes (CNRS/Université de Bordeaux) DTSTART;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20221018T130000 DTEND;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20221018T140000 UID:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/c4337c73-a549-4eaa-b885-7979031dcda3/ DESCRIPTION:Adaptive decision-making relies on an ability to assign conseq uences to actions\, and to select actions that fulfil internal goals. Beha ving in this goal-directed manner therefore requires knowledge about the a ssociation between different actions and their specific outcomes. However\ , in a changing environment\, these associations are not always stable. In deed\, the causal relationship between an action and its outcome can chang e such that this action is no longer necessary. Alternatively\, the outcom e associated with a given action might change. In both cases\, the decisio n-maker must update their previously acquired goal-directed actions. \n\nI n this talk\, I will present data that combines principles of Experimental Psychology with neural interventions to study these updating processes. I will first show that noradrenergic signaling in the rodent orbitofrontal cortex is required to adapt behaviour when the outcome associated with an action unexpectedly changes. I will then provide evidence that ventral hip pocampus is required to adapt to changes in the causal relationship betwee n an action and its outcome. Together\, these data indicate that while orb itofrontal cortex and ventral hippocampus are not required for the initial acquisition or expression of goal-directed actions\, they are required wh en these actions need to be updated.\nSpeakers:\nShauna Parkes (CNRS/Unive rsité de Bordeaux) LOCATION:Sherrington Library (For those who don’t already have keycard a ccess within the Sherrington we will have delegates meet you in reception and escort you to the seminar room.)\, off Parks Road OX1 3PT TZID:Europe/London URL:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/c4337c73-a549-4eaa-b885-7979031dcda3/ BEGIN:VALARM ACTION:display DESCRIPTION:Talk:Updating goal-directed actions: A role for orbitofrontal cortex and ventral hippocampus - Shauna Parkes (CNRS/Université de Bordea ux) TRIGGER:-PT1H END:VALARM END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:From Computation to Large-scale Neural Circuitry in Belief - Tobia s Donner (University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf) DTSTART;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20221122T130000Z DTEND;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20221122T140000Z UID:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/c1f7c6a0-750c-4a97-91d7-ac0c810b3ae1/ DESCRIPTION:Many decisions under uncertainty entail dynamic belief updatin g: multiple pieces of evidence informing about the state of the environmen t are accumulated to choose an appropriate action. Traditionally\, this pr ocess has been conceptualised as a linear and perfect (i.e. without loss) integration of sensory information along purely feedforward sensory-motor pathways. Yet\, natural environments can undergo hidden changes\, which re quires an adaptive\, non-linear accumulation of decision evidence that str ikes a tradeoff between stability and flexibility. How this adaptive compu tation is implemented in the brain has remained unknown.\n\nI will present an approach that my laboratory has developed to identify evidence accumul ation signatures in human behaviour and neural population activity (measur ed with magnetoencephalography\, MEG)\, across a large number of well-defi ned cortical areas. Applying this approach to data recorded during visual evidence accumulation tasks with change-points\, we find that behaviour an d neural activity in frontal and parietal regions involved in action selec tion exhibit hallmarks signatures of adaptive evidence accumulation. The s ame signatures of adaptive behaviour and neural activity emerge naturally from simulations of a detailed model of a recurrent cortical microcircuit. The MEG data further show that decision dynamics in downstream action-sel ective areas are mirrored by a selective modulation of the state of early visual cortex. This state modulation (i) is expressed in the alpha frequen cy-band\, (ii) tracks the evolving belief state encoded in downstream area s\, (iii) adapts to the environmental volatility\, and (iv) is amplified b y pupil-linked arousal elicited by inferred change points. Our findings li nk normative decision computations to recurrent cortical circuit dynamics and highlight the adaptive nature of decision-related feedback processing in the brain.\nSpeakers:\nTobias Donner (University Medical Center Hamburg -Eppendorf) LOCATION:New Radcliffe House (2nd Floor Seminar Room)\, Walton Street OX2 6NW TZID:Europe/London URL:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/c1f7c6a0-750c-4a97-91d7-ac0c810b3ae1/ BEGIN:VALARM ACTION:display DESCRIPTION:Talk:From Computation to Large-scale Neural Circuitry in Belie f - Tobias Donner (University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf) TRIGGER:-PT1H END:VALARM END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Predictive neural representations during vision and naturalistic l istening - Floris de Lange (Radboud University in Nijmegen) DTSTART;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20220913T130000 DTEND;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20220913T140000 UID:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/2646594c-f6a7-4bfb-bb23-36d8a9c54392/ DESCRIPTION:We live in a largely predictable world. Capitalising on this s tatistical structure allows us to predict events and agents around us\, wh ich can result in potentially more efficient encoding\, learning and recog nition of input\, and therefore appears a crucial skill.\n\nIn my talk\, I will discuss recent work from my lab\, investigating behaviour and brain activity\, in which we are trying to elucidate the nature of predictive pr ocessing. I will argue that the brain represents a temporally discounted r epresentation of future expected states. This representational format may lead to an efficient neural processing of expected input\, and directs inf ormation sampling to situations of maximal uncertainty and surprise. I wil l illustrate this principle in the realm of visual perception\, and natura l language and music listening.\nSpeakers:\nFloris de Lange (Radboud Unive rsity in Nijmegen) LOCATION:New Radcliffe House (2nd Floor Seminar Room)\, Walton Street OX2 6NW TZID:Europe/London URL:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/2646594c-f6a7-4bfb-bb23-36d8a9c54392/ BEGIN:VALARM ACTION:display DESCRIPTION:Talk:Predictive neural representations during vision and natur alistic listening - Floris de Lange (Radboud University in Nijmegen) TRIGGER:-PT1H END:VALARM END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Reading and writing wirelessly in the non-human primate brain - S ébastien Tremblay (University of Pennsylvania) DTSTART;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20220718T120000 DTEND;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20220718T130000 UID:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/9abfaa42-c933-419a-b38c-f4b55abea906/ DESCRIPTION:Cognitive research in non-human primates has typically involve d heavy movement restraints to accommodate brain recording and stimulation equipment. Consequently\, it is not clear whether the insights generated in laboratory settings generalize to more ecological contexts\, and how na tural movements interact with cognitive coding by neuronal populations. I will present new data collected in semi-restrained and fully unrestrained monkeys during the performance of cognitive tasks and natural social inter actions. I will also present new optogenetics techniques for the primate b rain including viral delivery methods as well as chronic illumination tech nologies allowing wireless stimulation/inhibition of specific cell populat ions in freely-moving primates. I will discuss applications of such techno logies for both basic and clinical research applications for primates\, in cluding humans. \nSpeakers:\nSébastien Tremblay (University of Pennsylvan ia) LOCATION:Tinsley Building (Seminar room)\, Mansfield Road OX1 3TA TZID:Europe/London URL:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/9abfaa42-c933-419a-b38c-f4b55abea906/ BEGIN:VALARM ACTION:display DESCRIPTION:Talk:Reading and writing wirelessly in the non-human primate b rain - Sébastien Tremblay (University of Pennsylvania) TRIGGER:-PT1H END:VALARM END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Reading and writing wirelessly in the non-human primate brain - S ébastien Tremblay (University of Pennsylvania) DTSTART;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20220718T120000 DTEND;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20220718T130000 UID:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/9abfaa42-c933-419a-b38c-f4b55abea906/ DESCRIPTION:Cognitive research in non-human primates has typically involve d heavy movement restraints to accommodate brain recording and stimulation equipment. Consequently\, it is not clear whether the insights generated in laboratory settings generalize to more ecological contexts\, and how na tural movements interact with cognitive coding by neuronal populations. I will present new data collected in semi-restrained and fully unrestrained monkeys during the performance of cognitive tasks and natural social inter actions. I will also present new optogenetics techniques for the primate b rain including viral delivery methods as well as chronic illumination tech nologies allowing wireless stimulation/inhibition of specific cell populat ions in freely-moving primates. I will discuss applications of such techno logies for both basic and clinical research applications for primates\, in cluding humans. \nSpeakers:\nSébastien Tremblay (University of Pennsylvan ia) LOCATION:Tinsley Building (Seminar room)\, Mansfield Road OX1 3TA TZID:Europe/London URL:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/9abfaa42-c933-419a-b38c-f4b55abea906/ BEGIN:VALARM ACTION:display DESCRIPTION:Talk:Reading and writing wirelessly in the non-human primate b rain - Sébastien Tremblay (University of Pennsylvania) TRIGGER:-PT1H END:VALARM END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Neural coding of space: from 3D grid cells to object × place - Gi ly Ginosar (Weizmann Institute of Science\, Israel) DTSTART;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20220620T153000 DTEND;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20220620T163000 UID:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/1c0e2f5e-c1df-4649-b135-742ba8bcfeda/ DESCRIPTION:Successful navigation requires knowledge of the space navigate d\, and the locations of specific objects within it. To investigate how th ese signals are represented in the case of 3D space\, we recorded from med ial entorhinal cortex (MEC) neurons in freely flying bats. Alongside 3D bo rder cells and 3D head-direction cells\, we found neurons with multiple 3D firing fields. Many of these multifield neurons were 3D grid cells\, whos e neighbouring fields were separated by a characteristic distance – form ing a local order – but lacked any global lattice arrangement of the fie lds.\n\nWe modelled grid cells as emerging from pairwise interactions betw een fields\, which yielded a hexagonal lattice in 2D and local order in 3D – thereby describing findings from both 2D and 3D grid cells using one unifying model. We also found neurons that fired at one or two locations\, near specific rest-objects that were identical in shape but varied in the ir position in the room. Unlike object-vector cells\, which are found in t he superficial layers of MEC and fire at the vicinity of all objects\, the se neurons fired at the vicinity of one object in a specific position and were mainly found in the deep layers of MEC. Moreover\, these cells fired near the rest-object when the bat flew from or to the object\, but not whe n it flew through the same location without object-engagement – thus enc oding object × position.\n\nOur results suggest two things: First\, the f inding of local but not global order in 3D grid cells call for re-thinking the role of grid cells in spatial coding. Second\, the data on object × position coding point to a broader prevalence than currently thought for conjunctive coding of navigational variables – including the encoding of objects\, which are crucially important for navigation. \nSpeakers:\nGily Ginosar (Weizmann Institute of Science\, Israel) LOCATION:Sherrington Library\, off Parks Road OX1 3PT TZID:Europe/London URL:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/1c0e2f5e-c1df-4649-b135-742ba8bcfeda/ BEGIN:VALARM ACTION:display DESCRIPTION:Talk:Neural coding of space: from 3D grid cells to object × p lace - Gily Ginosar (Weizmann Institute of Science\, Israel) TRIGGER:-PT1H END:VALARM END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Can we use MRI to measure how neurons and glia change their shape? - Clemence Ligneul (University of Oxford) DTSTART;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20220607T130000 DTEND;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20220607T140000 UID:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/118b941c-eb2b-4aec-9187-517537b6a18f/ DESCRIPTION:From birth to death\, neurons and glial cells morphologies evo lve. They respond to environmental challenges (e.g. spine density and lear ning\, activated microglia and infection etc) or can reflect an abnormal b rain condition (e.g. astrocytic hypertrophy\, neuronal atrophy\, dendritic tree defects etc). Diffusion MRI provides insights about brain microstruc ture\, from the water molecules constrained by cell membranes. However\, w ater is ubiquitous\, and its diffusion can hardly disentangle contribution s from the extracellular space\, glial cells or neurons for example. This is where diffusion-weighted MRS steps in! In this presentation\, I will in troduce a few applications in the healthy (developing) rodent brain and in a mouse model of astrocytic activation. This method exists both on animal and human scanners and facilitates translational perspectives. At WIN\, i t is already implemented on the rodent 7T MRI scanner\, and it has been re cently installed on the human 3T. Besides presenting the potential applic ations of diffusion weighted-MRS in neuroscience and psychology\, this tal k will be an opportunity to briefly highlight the work of some people from the Preclinical Imaging Group working with the rodent 7T here at Oxford\, and facilitate connections with EP in case of matching research interests !\nSpeakers:\nClemence Ligneul (University of Oxford) LOCATION:New Radcliffe House\, Walton Street OX2 6NW TZID:Europe/London URL:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/118b941c-eb2b-4aec-9187-517537b6a18f/ BEGIN:VALARM ACTION:display DESCRIPTION:Talk:Can we use MRI to measure how neurons and glia change the ir shape? - Clemence Ligneul (University of Oxford) TRIGGER:-PT1H END:VALARM END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:BEACON Seminar: Striatal dopamine and the costs and benefits of co gnitive effort - Andrew Westbrook (Brown University) DTSTART;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20220621T140000 DTEND;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20220621T150000 UID:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/b0c9e7ba-b652-45a6-a57e-655332d521d1/ DESCRIPTION:Cognitive control is effortful\, causing people to avoid deman ding tasks\, and undermining goal-directed behavior. Striatal dopamine pro motes physical effort for reward\, by increasing sensitivity to reward ben efits and decreasing sensitivity to effort costs. These results\, along wi th evidence that the costs of cognitive effort are encoded in cortico-stri atal circuits\, raise the possibility that striatal dopamine could boost m otivation for cognitive effort as well. We hypothesised that striatal dopa mine shapes both the learning and the expression of policies governing cos t-benefit tradeoffs and our willingness to exert cognitive effort.\n\nThis talk describes two studies respectively investigating how striatal dopami ne impacts on effort learning and decision-making. Our studies combined [1 8F]-DOPA PET imaging of dopamine synthesis capacity with dopamine transpor t blocker methylphenidate\, the D2 agent sulpiride\, and placebo. In one s tudy\, participants decided between doing harder working memory tasks for more money or easier tasks for less money. We find that willingness to exp end cognitive effort depends on baseline striatal dopamine function\, and that dopaminergic drugs can also boost motivation for those with low dopam ine synthesis capacity. In another study\, participants learned stimulus-r esponse associations in a task which dissociates the contributions of rein forcement learning and working memory to behaviour. We find that greater d opamine signaling increases the degree to which people rely on costly work ing memory versus cheap reinforcement learning and also that methylphenida te blunts effort discounting during reinforcement learning.\nSpeakers:\nAn drew Westbrook (Brown University) LOCATION:Venue to be announced TZID:Europe/London URL:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/b0c9e7ba-b652-45a6-a57e-655332d521d1/ BEGIN:VALARM ACTION:display DESCRIPTION:Talk:BEACON Seminar: Striatal dopamine and the costs and benef its of cognitive effort - Andrew Westbrook (Brown University) TRIGGER:-PT1H END:VALARM END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:BEACON Seminar: Naturalistic approaches for studying social cognit ion in animals and humans - Ziv Williams (Harvard Medical School) DTSTART;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20220524T140000 DTEND;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20220524T150000 UID:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/fc938fbb-42c3-4230-b263-29e95838d057/ DESCRIPTION:Social interactions are dynamic\, requiring individuals to und erstand not only how their behaviour may affect others but also how others may respond in return. In humans\, social interactions are also often dom inated by processes such as language and theory of mind which allow us to communicate complex thoughts and beliefs.\n\nUnderstanding the basic neura l processes that underlie social behaviour or by which individuals communi cate has remained a challenge. Here\, we develop naturalistic approaches i n animals and humans to begin investigating these questions at cellular sc ale. First\, by developing an ethologically based group task in three-inte racting rhesus macaques\, we identify detailed representations of other’ s behaviour by neurons in the prefrontal cortex\, reflecting the other’s identities\, their interactions\, social context\, actions\, and outcomes . We also show how these cells collectively represent the interaction betw een specific group members and how they enable mutually beneficial social behaviour. Second\, by recording from neurons in the human prefrontal cort ex during language-based tasks\, we identify neurons that reliably encode information about others’ beliefs across richly varying scenarios and th at distinguish self- from other-belief-related representations. By further following their encoding dynamics\, we also show how these cells represen t the contents of the others’ beliefs and accurately predict whether the y are true or false. Finally\, we show how these cell ensembles track ling uistic information during natural speech processing and how language can b e used to ask specific questions about the neuronal constructs that underl ie social reasoning. Together\, these studies reveal detailed cellular mec hanisms for interactive social behaviour in animals and humans and highlig ht the prospective use of naturalistic approaches in social neuroscience.\ nSpeakers:\nZiv Williams (Harvard Medical School) LOCATION:Venue to be announced TZID:Europe/London URL:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/fc938fbb-42c3-4230-b263-29e95838d057/ BEGIN:VALARM ACTION:display DESCRIPTION:Talk:BEACON Seminar: Naturalistic approaches for studying soci al cognition in animals and humans - Ziv Williams (Harvard Medical School) TRIGGER:-PT1H END:VALARM END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Rethinking the target template in visual search: the role of learn ed expectations - Joy J Geng (University of California Davis) DTSTART;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20220426T130000 DTEND;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20220426T140000 UID:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/6a1567de-2e0f-445d-bbe7-a645fdaf91c7/ DESCRIPTION:Models of attention posit the existence of a target\, or atten tional\, template in working memory. Traditionally\, the template has been characterised as containing a static and veridical representation of the target that is most efficient when highly precise.\n\nIn this talk\, I wil l share data from my lab that challenges this notion and instead suggests that the target template is highly flexible and contains information that maximises the ability to distinguish targets from distractors. This inform ation is often off-veridical and determined by expectations about the loca l stimulus context\, target variability\, and learned associations. Our re sults indicate that the purpose of the target template is to maximise targ et-to-distractor distinctiveness and doing so often relies on information beyond the visual features of the target object.\nSpeakers:\nJoy J Geng (U niversity of California Davis) LOCATION:New Radcliffe House (Seminar Room)\, Walton Street OX2 6NW TZID:Europe/London URL:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/6a1567de-2e0f-445d-bbe7-a645fdaf91c7/ BEGIN:VALARM ACTION:display DESCRIPTION:Talk:Rethinking the target template in visual search: the role of learned expectations - Joy J Geng (University of California Davis) TRIGGER:-PT1H END:VALARM END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:A computational perspective on NMDA receptor antagonism in psychia try - Lilian Weber (WIN\, University of Oxford) DTSTART;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20220301T130000Z DTEND;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20220301T140000Z UID:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/593c6b35-1052-48f6-8df3-603abacb1acb/ DESCRIPTION:A central challenge in psychiatry is to link different levels of explanation: we have a poor understanding of how changes at the synapti c level (in particular drug interventions) lead to changes in cognition an d behaviour (where symptoms manifest). I will argue that understanding bot h symptoms and interventions on an algorithmic level can provide the missi ng link. As an example\, I will examine the role of NMDA receptor dysfunct ion in psychiatry. I will present work suggesting that blocking NMDA recep tors changes how past observations are integrated with new information\, u sing auditory mismatch paradigms as well as perceptual choice tasks. Final ly\, I will present ideas and ongoing experiments on how this algorithmic motif\, when extended into the reward and interoceptive domains\, could ex plain the remarkable clinical profile of the NMDA receptor antagonist keta mine – a drug that serves both as a pharmacological model of psychosis\, and as a fast-acting antidepressant. \nSpeakers:\nLilian Weber (WIN\, Uni versity of Oxford) LOCATION:Venue to be announced TZID:Europe/London URL:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/593c6b35-1052-48f6-8df3-603abacb1acb/ BEGIN:VALARM ACTION:display DESCRIPTION:Talk:A computational perspective on NMDA receptor antagonism i n psychiatry - Lilian Weber (WIN\, University of Oxford) TRIGGER:-PT1H END:VALARM END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:BEACON Seminar: Has brain imaging discovered anything new about th e brain? - Professor Dick Passingham (University of Oxford) DTSTART;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20220315T130000Z DTEND;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20220315T140000Z UID:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/4dca788c-2fa2-4c3a-8b3f-760282cc481f/ DESCRIPTION:FMRI has been exploited now for over thirty years. So it is ti me to ask whether it has changed the way we think about the brain. For com parison I briefly review three findings from studies of animals that have made fundamental discoveries about the brain. I suggest four findings from brain imaging that have discovered new principles concerning brain functi on. However\, since brain imaging measures correlations\, it is necessary to intervene in the system if we are to demonstrate causal influences. I c onclude that FMRI is not sufficient on its own and that a variety of metho ds need to be used if we are to make progress in understanding how the bra in works.\nSpeakers:\nProfessor Dick Passingham (University of Oxford) LOCATION:Venue to be announced TZID:Europe/London URL:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/4dca788c-2fa2-4c3a-8b3f-760282cc481f/ BEGIN:VALARM ACTION:display DESCRIPTION:Talk:BEACON Seminar: Has brain imaging discovered anything new about the brain? - Professor Dick Passingham (University of Oxford) TRIGGER:-PT1H END:VALARM END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:BEACON Seminar - Title TBD - Madalena Fonseca (University of Oxfor d) DTSTART;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20220215T130000Z DTEND;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20220215T140000Z UID:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/b7c179a7-efcb-4328-9b94-b4d01dc11d92/ DESCRIPTION:\nStatus: This talk has been cancelled\n\nSpeakers:\nMadalena Fonseca (University of Oxford) LOCATION:Venue to be announced TZID:Europe/London URL:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/b7c179a7-efcb-4328-9b94-b4d01dc11d92/ BEGIN:VALARM ACTION:display DESCRIPTION:Talk:BEACON Seminar - Title TBD - Madalena Fonseca (University of Oxford) TRIGGER:-PT1H END:VALARM END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:In search of adaptability - Alireza Soltani (Dartmouth College) DTSTART;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20220118T140000Z DTEND;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20220118T150000Z UID:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/a5690e15-67da-4a4b-a477-85a3234c8cbc/ DESCRIPTION:While changing on many timescales\, the world around us looks rather still at any point in time because how our perception works. To be successful\, however\, living organisms should be able to adapt their beha vioural responses according to timescales of regularities and changes in t he environment. Identifying these timescales can be beneficial in at least two ways: (1) to adopt a proper response\; for example\, foraging at the right time of the day\; (2) to use deviation from what is predicted to det ect drastic environmental changes to adjust response\, for example\, by mo ving to a new location when the environment is no longer rewarding. Import antly\, the brain possesses multiple mechanisms for responding to and proc essing information at different timescales\, allowing us to learn and pred ict regularities of the environment and to detect its changes. But is it p ossible to benefit from both unboundedly? \n\nIn this talk\, I argue that this is not possible due to a general tradeoff in learning: precision in learning regularities of the environment limits flexibility in adjusting w hat is learned and vice versa. On a brighter note\, I will share some of o ur findings about different sources of flexibility in learning and choice behaviour. Specifically\, I will use computational methods and experimenta l data across multiple species to address: (1) how is the amount or speed of learning determined and adjusted? (2) how are learning strategies deter mined and adjusted? (3) how are different sources of information combined to allow flexibility? and (4) how are such adjustments reflected in timesc ales of neural responses? Addressing these questions is more important th an ever when facing multiple global challenges\, because adaptability is w hat made us a successful species and can save us too.\nSpeakers:\nAlireza Soltani (Dartmouth College) LOCATION:Venue to be announced TZID:Europe/London URL:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/a5690e15-67da-4a4b-a477-85a3234c8cbc/ BEGIN:VALARM ACTION:display DESCRIPTION:Talk:In search of adaptability - Alireza Soltani (Dartmouth Co llege) TRIGGER:-PT1H END:VALARM END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:BEACON Seminar: The biology of novelty seeking and uncertainty red uction - Ilya Monosov (Washington University) DTSTART;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20211214T150000Z DTEND;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20211214T160000Z UID:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/e070b84e-db30-4968-ab8f-1d00da912280/ DESCRIPTION:Biological and artificial agents are motivated to seek reward. However\, biological agents in particular display intrinsic motivation to explore\, even when their curiosity does not result in reward. For exampl e\, humans and monkeys explore novel objects regardless of their task rele vance\, and they are often motivated to gain advance information about the future\, even in situations in which this information cannot be used for the task at hand. I will discuss the biological mechanisms of these intrin sic drives and outline the circuit mechanisms through which curiosity can impact value-based economic decision making in primates and humans. \nSpea kers:\nIlya Monosov (Washington University) LOCATION:Venue to be announced TZID:Europe/London URL:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/e070b84e-db30-4968-ab8f-1d00da912280/ BEGIN:VALARM ACTION:display DESCRIPTION:Talk:BEACON Seminar: The biology of novelty seeking and uncert ainty reduction - Ilya Monosov (Washington University) TRIGGER:-PT1H END:VALARM END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:BEACON Seminar: The biology of novelty seeking and uncertainty red uction - Ilya Monosov (Washington University) DTSTART;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20211214T150000Z DTEND;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20211214T160000Z UID:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/e070b84e-db30-4968-ab8f-1d00da912280/ DESCRIPTION:Biological and artificial agents are motivated to seek reward. However\, biological agents in particular display intrinsic motivation to explore\, even when their curiosity does not result in reward. For exampl e\, humans and monkeys explore novel objects regardless of their task rele vance\, and they are often motivated to gain advance information about the future\, even in situations in which this information cannot be used for the task at hand. I will discuss the biological mechanisms of these intrin sic drives and outline the circuit mechanisms through which curiosity can impact value-based economic decision making in primates and humans. \nSpea kers:\nIlya Monosov (Washington University) LOCATION:Venue to be announced TZID:Europe/London URL:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/e070b84e-db30-4968-ab8f-1d00da912280/ BEGIN:VALARM ACTION:display DESCRIPTION:Talk:BEACON Seminar: The biology of novelty seeking and uncert ainty reduction - Ilya Monosov (Washington University) TRIGGER:-PT1H END:VALARM END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:BEACON Seminar - Madalena Fonseca (University of Oxford) DTSTART;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20211116T130000Z DTEND;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20211116T140000Z UID:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/a8982e2f-871d-48c5-8577-fd0d1578c909/ DESCRIPTION:\nStatus: This talk has been cancelled\nSeminars this term wil l be held remotely on Zoom. Links for joining will be sent out before each seminar. Please contact the host if you would like to set up a remote mee ting with a speaker. If you have suggestions for future speakers\, please contact Lauren (lauren.burgeno@dpag.ox.ac.uk)\, or Nima (nima.khalighineja d@psy.ox.ac.uk).\nSpeakers:\nMadalena Fonseca (University of Oxford) LOCATION:Venue to be announced TZID:Europe/London URL:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/a8982e2f-871d-48c5-8577-fd0d1578c909/ BEGIN:VALARM ACTION:display DESCRIPTION:Talk:BEACON Seminar - Madalena Fonseca (University of Oxford) TRIGGER:-PT1H END:VALARM END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:BEACON Seminar - Madalena Fonseca (University of Oxford) DTSTART;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20211116T130000Z DTEND;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20211116T140000Z UID:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/a8982e2f-871d-48c5-8577-fd0d1578c909/ DESCRIPTION:\nStatus: This talk has been cancelled\nSeminars this term wil l be held remotely on Zoom. Links for joining will be sent out before each seminar. Please contact the host if you would like to set up a remote mee ting with a speaker. If you have suggestions for future speakers\, please contact Lauren (lauren.burgeno@dpag.ox.ac.uk)\, or Nima (nima.khalighineja d@psy.ox.ac.uk).\nSpeakers:\nMadalena Fonseca (University of Oxford) LOCATION:Venue to be announced TZID:Europe/London URL:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/a8982e2f-871d-48c5-8577-fd0d1578c909/ BEGIN:VALARM ACTION:display DESCRIPTION:Talk:BEACON Seminar - Madalena Fonseca (University of Oxford) TRIGGER:-PT1H END:VALARM END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:BEACON Seminar: The geometry of the representation of decision var iable and stimulus difficulty in the parietal cortex - Roozbeh Kiani (New York University) DTSTART;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20211019T140000 DTEND;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20211019T150000 UID:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/99b0f017-3201-4249-9324-5a18bbc75b27/ DESCRIPTION:ABSTRACT:\nLateral intraparietal (LIP) neurons represent forma tion of perceptual decisions involving eye movements. In circuit models fo r these decisions\, neural ensembles that encode actions compete to form d ecisions. Consequently\, decision variables (DVs) are represented as parti ally potentiated action plans\, where ensembles increase their average res ponses for stronger evidence supporting their preferred actions. As anothe r consequence\, DV representation and readout are implemented similarly fo r decisions with identical competing actions\, irrespective of input and t ask context differences. In my talk\, I will challenge those core principl es using a novel face-discrimination task\, where LIP firing rates decreas e with supporting evidence\, contrary to conventional motion-discriminatio n tasks. These opposite response patterns arise from similar mechanisms in which decisions form along curved\, one-dimensional population-response m anifolds misaligned with action representations. These manifolds rotate in state space based on task context\, necessitating distinct readouts. I wi ll show similar manifolds in lateral and medial prefrontal cortices\, sugg esting a ubiquitous representational geometry across decision-making circu its.\nSpeakers:\nRoozbeh Kiani (New York University) LOCATION:Venue to be announced TZID:Europe/London URL:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/99b0f017-3201-4249-9324-5a18bbc75b27/ BEGIN:VALARM ACTION:display DESCRIPTION:Talk:BEACON Seminar: The geometry of the representation of dec ision variable and stimulus difficulty in the parietal cortex - Roozbeh Ki ani (New York University) TRIGGER:-PT1H END:VALARM END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:BEACON Seminar: The geometry of the representation of decision var iable and stimulus difficulty in the parietal cortex - Roozbeh Kiani (New York University) DTSTART;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20211019T140000 DTEND;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20211019T150000 UID:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/99b0f017-3201-4249-9324-5a18bbc75b27/ DESCRIPTION:ABSTRACT:\nLateral intraparietal (LIP) neurons represent forma tion of perceptual decisions involving eye movements. In circuit models fo r these decisions\, neural ensembles that encode actions compete to form d ecisions. Consequently\, decision variables (DVs) are represented as parti ally potentiated action plans\, where ensembles increase their average res ponses for stronger evidence supporting their preferred actions. As anothe r consequence\, DV representation and readout are implemented similarly fo r decisions with identical competing actions\, irrespective of input and t ask context differences. In my talk\, I will challenge those core principl es using a novel face-discrimination task\, where LIP firing rates decreas e with supporting evidence\, contrary to conventional motion-discriminatio n tasks. These opposite response patterns arise from similar mechanisms in which decisions form along curved\, one-dimensional population-response m anifolds misaligned with action representations. These manifolds rotate in state space based on task context\, necessitating distinct readouts. I wi ll show similar manifolds in lateral and medial prefrontal cortices\, sugg esting a ubiquitous representational geometry across decision-making circu its.\nSpeakers:\nRoozbeh Kiani (New York University) LOCATION:Venue to be announced TZID:Europe/London URL:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/99b0f017-3201-4249-9324-5a18bbc75b27/ BEGIN:VALARM ACTION:display DESCRIPTION:Talk:BEACON Seminar: The geometry of the representation of dec ision variable and stimulus difficulty in the parietal cortex - Roozbeh Ki ani (New York University) TRIGGER:-PT1H END:VALARM END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Competition and control in working memory - Anastasia Kiyonaga (UC San Diego) DTSTART;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20210615T160000 DTEND;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20210615T170000 UID:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/ab1efd23-6228-4dfb-ad60-8a7ebf4bda58/ DESCRIPTION:If you would like to meet Anastasia after the talk\, please ge t in touch with Nick Myers at nicholas.myers@psy.ox.ac.uk.\nSpeakers:\nAna stasia Kiyonaga (UC San Diego) LOCATION:Venue to be announced TZID:Europe/London URL:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/ab1efd23-6228-4dfb-ad60-8a7ebf4bda58/ BEGIN:VALARM ACTION:display DESCRIPTION:Talk:Competition and control in working memory - Anastasia Kiy onaga (UC San Diego) TRIGGER:-PT1H END:VALARM END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:How curiosity enhances hippocampus-dependent memory - Dr Matthias J. Gruber (Cardiff University) DTSTART;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20210525T130000 DTEND;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20210525T140000 UID:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/816805ae-8e2b-46dd-bc4f-e93d6da0d8a1/ DESCRIPTION:Curiosity – the desire to seek new information – has been praised as a critical ingredient to optimise learning in daily life. Howev er\, only recently an emerging field of curiosity research in psychology a nd neuroscience has begun to shed more light on how curiosity affects lear ning and memory. In my talk\, I will present evidence from neuroimaging an d behavioural studies that show how curiosity affects hippocampus-dependen t memory. In particular\, I will show evidence of (1) how curiosity affect s activity within dopaminergic-hippocampal regions and how these subcortic al regions interact with higher-level brain networks such as the default m ode network in support of curiosity-enhanced memory\, (2) how curiosity af fects memory differently in childhood and adolescence\, and (3) how states of curiosity affect memory for incidental information that is encountered during curiosity states. I will present evidence from a series of behavio ural experiments using epistemic and perceptual curiosity that help to und erstand the mechanisms and generalisability of curiosity-enhanced memory. Finally\, I will discuss how our recently proposed Prediction\, Appraisal\ , Curiosity\, and Exploration (PACE) framework\, which synthesises current ideas on the mechanisms underlying curiosity\, can guide future research in psychology and neuroscience to further elucidate the mechanisms underly ing curiosity and curiosity-based memory.\n\nOther information:\nIf you wo uld like to meet Matthias on the day of the talk\, please get in touch wit h Nima Khalighinejad or Nick Myers.\nSpeakers:\nDr Matthias J. Gruber (Car diff University) LOCATION:Venue to be announced TZID:Europe/London URL:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/816805ae-8e2b-46dd-bc4f-e93d6da0d8a1/ BEGIN:VALARM ACTION:display DESCRIPTION:Talk:How curiosity enhances hippocampus-dependent memory - Dr Matthias J. Gruber (Cardiff University) TRIGGER:-PT1H END:VALARM END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:BEACON Seminar: Hippocampal-prefrontal hierarchical representation s guide generalization and inference - Alison Preston (University of Texas ) DTSTART;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20210518T140000 DTEND;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20210518T150000 UID:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/6ae02176-f688-4b0f-a9b0-31bb0d4277dd/ DESCRIPTION:We acquire knowledge by connecting events that are experienced at different times and places\, forming cognitive maps that represent the commonalities among and differences between individual events and their e lements. In this talk\, I will highlight the role of hippocampus and prefr ontal cortex in forming domain-general cognitive maps that exaggerate even t commonalities and differences simultaneously\, further showing how disto rted maps bias decision making and inference. Using neurocomputational app roaches\, I will present additional evidence that hippocampal and prefront al cognitive maps reflect abstract representational geometries that code t he regular structure of the environment\, promoting generalization through inference. I will end by showing that prefrontal cortex supports efficien t formation of abstract knowledge through a process akin to goal-directed dimensionality reduction. Collectively\, these data show how neural repres entations extend knowledge beyond direct experience to allow for adaptive decision making in new contexts.\n\nOTHER INFORMATION:\nIf you would like to meet Alison on the day of the talk\, please get in touch with Nima Khal ighinejad or Nick Myers\, Department of Experimental Psychology.\nSpeakers :\nAlison Preston (University of Texas) LOCATION:via zoom TZID:Europe/London URL:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/6ae02176-f688-4b0f-a9b0-31bb0d4277dd/ BEGIN:VALARM ACTION:display DESCRIPTION:Talk:BEACON Seminar: Hippocampal-prefrontal hierarchical repre sentations guide generalization and inference - Alison Preston (University of Texas) TRIGGER:-PT1H END:VALARM END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:BEACON Seminar: Robust Encoding of Abstract Rules by Distinct Neu ronal Populations in Primate Visual Cortex - Tirin Moore (Stanford) DTSTART;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20210309T160000Z DTEND;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20210309T170000Z UID:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/332301e3-11c3-4b68-9102-6773675e3b20/ DESCRIPTION:I will discuss our recent evidence showing that information ab out abstract rules can be decoded from neuronal activity in primate visual cortex even in the absence of sensory stimulation. Furthermore\, that rul e information is greatest among neurons with the least visual activity and the weakest coupling to local neuronal networks. In addition\, I will tal k about recent developments in large-scale neurophysiological techniques i n nonhuman primates.\n\n\nMore information:\n1. The host for this seminar is Alon Baram. Please contact him if you would like to set up a remote mee ting with a speaker.\n2. Seminars this term will be held remotely on Zoom. Links for joining will be sent out before each seminar. \n3. Please conta ct the host if you would like to set up a remote meeting with a speaker. I f you have suggestions for future speakers\, please contact Lauren (lauren .burgeno@dpag.ox.ac.uk)\, Nima (nima.khalighinejad@psy.ox.ac.uk)\, or Nick (nicholas.myers@psy.ox.ac.uk).\nSpeakers:\nTirin Moore (Stanford) LOCATION:Venue to be announced TZID:Europe/London URL:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/332301e3-11c3-4b68-9102-6773675e3b20/ BEGIN:VALARM ACTION:display DESCRIPTION:Talk:BEACON Seminar: Robust Encoding of Abstract Rules by Dis tinct Neuronal Populations in Primate Visual Cortex - Tirin Moore (Stanfor d) TRIGGER:-PT1H END:VALARM END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Sub-second dopamine and serotonin signalling in human striatum dur ing perceptual decision-making - Dan Bang (University College London) DTSTART;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20210209T130000Z DTEND;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20210209T140000Z UID:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/f3284918-4532-4069-9fbd-5d23eea2aa54/ DESCRIPTION:Recent animal research indicates that dopamine and serotonin\, neuromodulators traditionally associated with appetitive and aversive pro cesses\, are also involved in sensory inference and decisions based on suc h inference. In this talk\, I will present a study in which we tested this hypothesis in the human brain. We used fast-scan cyclic voltammetry adapt ed for use during DBS surgery to monitor sub-second changes in striatal do pamine and serotonin while patients performed a visual perceptual decision task that separates sensory uncertainty from decision difficulty in a fac torial design. Caudate nucleus recordings (n=4) revealed multi-scale encod ing: in three patients\, serotonin tracked sensory uncertainty\, and\, in one patient\, both dopamine and serotonin tracked deviations from expected trial transitions within our factorial design. Putamen recordings (n=1) s upported a cognition-action separation between caudate nucleus and putamen – a striatal sub-division unique to primates – with both dopamine and serotonin tracking decision times. I will argue that these first-of-their -kind observations in the human brain support a role for sub-second dopami ne and serotonin signalling in non-reward-based aspects of cognition and a ction.\nSpeakers:\nDan Bang (University College London) LOCATION:Venue to be announced TZID:Europe/London URL:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/f3284918-4532-4069-9fbd-5d23eea2aa54/ BEGIN:VALARM ACTION:display DESCRIPTION:Talk:Sub-second dopamine and serotonin signalling in human str iatum during perceptual decision-making - Dan Bang (University College Lon don) TRIGGER:-PT1H END:VALARM END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Cortical and striatal circuit dynamics during natural and learned actions - Andreas Klaus (Champalimaud\, Portugal) DTSTART;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20201124T130000Z DTEND;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20201124T140000Z UID:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/c47443f1-850e-488a-aed9-c39ea6bd3a17/ DESCRIPTION:The striatum is required for action selection and initiation\, and regulates behavior via the striatonigral (direct) and striatopallidal (indirect) pathways. Both pathways are driven by cortical inputs and incr ease their activity at movement onset during natural and learned behaviors . Some models of striatal function propose that the direct pathway promote s specific actions (i.e.\, action facilitation) whereas the indirect pathw ay simultaneously suppresses conflicting actions (i.e.\, action suppressio n). However\, we previously found that both striatal pathways are rather a ction-specific during natural behaviors. Here\, we show that this striatal organization is in fact inherited from the cortex. Furthermore\, to prope rly distinguish action facilitation from action suppression\, we developed a probabilistic three-alternative choice task and recorded direct- and in direct-pathway neurons of the dorsolateral striatum and their motor cortex inputs in freely moving mice using intracellular calcium imaging of large neuronal populations. We found that activity in the motor cortex increase s strongly before trial initiation and remains high until the choice was r eported. In contrast\, striatal activity in both pathways was highest when mice reported their choice. Thus\, choice information appeared first in t he cortex. Importantly\, striatal direct- and indirect-pathway ensembles a s well as motor cortex ensembles showed high specificity with regard to th e chosen action. This result is not consistent with models that propose an action-suppressing function for striatal indirect-pathway neurons. In thi s seminar\, I will discuss alternative models of cortico-striatal function that we are currently testing using optogenetic inhibition of the motor c ortex and the dorsolateral striatum during this task.\nSpeakers:\nAndreas Klaus (Champalimaud\, Portugal) LOCATION:Venue to be announced TZID:Europe/London URL:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/c47443f1-850e-488a-aed9-c39ea6bd3a17/ BEGIN:VALARM ACTION:display DESCRIPTION:Talk:Cortical and striatal circuit dynamics during natural and learned actions - Andreas Klaus (Champalimaud\, Portugal) TRIGGER:-PT1H END:VALARM END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR